Systems and methods for inferring matches and logging-in of online users across devices

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed for associating a plurality of Internet-enabled devices with a common user profile for targeting Internet content or advertising. One method includes: receiving, from a plurality of Internet-enabled devices, a plurality of requests for electronic content or advertising; extracting, from each of the plurality of requests, a source IP address and a unique identifier associated with the respective Internet-enabled device; identifying each possible pair of devices from which requests were received; calculating for each possible pair of devices a probability that the pair of devices are owned or operated by a common user; and prompting a user to either confirm a characteristic of a prior browsing session or to log-in to an account associated with the common user based on a comparison of the calculated probability to one or more thresholds.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to onlineuser identity management and to delivering Internet content andadvertising. More specifically, exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure relate to systems and methods for identifying users as theyuse various devices to access the Internet (e.g., by matching devicesand browsers to common users), and to online advertising based on users'identities for targeted and behavioral advertising.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, people have started spending more and more timebrowsing content on the Internet, as opposed to traditional sources,such as television, radio, and print media. As a result, the value ofadvertising on web pages has risen significantly, and techniques fortargeting demographics of interest have become very advanced.

Internet cookies have become a ubiquitous and invaluable tool forperforming Internet advertising and other important online functions.Traditional techniques for targeting electronic advertising involveconfiguring users' Internet browsers such that third party cookies canbe set, read from, and written to. When a cookie is set on a browser,one of the identifying elements of the cookie is the domain from whichit was served. If an Internet user visits, for example, www.site.com andthat site contains code to set a cookie, then that cookie will be setwith “site.com” as its domain. Continuing this illustrative example,site.com can also embed code that pulls content, such as ads, from URLsthat are not on the site.com domain and those ads can also set cookies.For example, site.com can have code on its page that pulls an ad from,by way of example, www.adnetwork.com. The ad will be served fromadnetwork.com and will set cookies on the adnetwork.com domain.

Online advertising may be significantly enhanced by web browsers that,by default or by settings, allow third party cookies, and by people whopermit visited sites to set and read third party cookies. Use of thirdparty cookies enables ad networks to access cookies that they set acrossa wide network of websites, thereby enabling behavioral and contextualadvertising to web viewers across many visited websites. Specifically,web browsers that are set to allow third party cookies will allow, forexample, adnetwork.com to set its cookie despite the user having visitedwww.site.com. Furthermore, the same browser setting will also allowadnetwork.com to access any cookies set under their domain regardless ofwhich site the Internet user is visiting.

By way of background, ad networks typically have hundreds or thousandsof partners (often referred to as “publishers”) that publish onlinecontent along with “ad tags” provided by their partner ad network. Forexample, each of a news website (www.news.com), a blog (www.blog.com),and an informational website (www.info.com), among others, may engage anad network to efficiently and profitably advertise to those websites'viewers. The ad network provides each of those sites with an ad taghaving the ad network's domain, e.g., “adnetwork.com.” For any visitors,or more specifically, visitors' browsers that allow third party cookies,the ad network may access cookie data of visitors to its partners' sites(i.e., across its entire network of sites), even though those sites'domains (e.g., www.news.com, etc.) do not match the ad network's domain.Specifically, the ad network's ad tag on each site may access cookiedata associated with the domain of the ad tag. As a result, the adnetwork may learn more about a user's browsing history across itsnetwork, and therefore more about the user's likely demographics,interests, purchasing goals, and other useful advertising information.

Each time an Internet advertisement is shown to a website visitor isknown as an “impression.” When the user is shown the advertisement, theuser may select, or “click,” on the advertisement, or may take another“action,” such as completing an online form to request more information.If the user later purchases the product, the purchase is referred to asa “conversion” of the impression. Advertisers may be interested inimpressions (e.g., if they are trying to increase awareness of a brand),clicks (e.g., if they are trying to provide more information about aproduct), or conversions (e.g., if they are trying to make sales or getnew users to sign up for services). Advertisers may pay advertisingnetworks and therefore publishers based on, for example, impressions,clicks, or conversions over the course of an advertising campaign.Typically, an advertiser may have a spending plan that specifies how theadvertiser wishes to spend its budget during a campaign.

Advertising networks rely on being able to accurately identify theperson viewing an advertising creative in order to tailor theadvertising creative to the user's specific interests, provide frequencycapping, and provide other user specific functionality. In the world ofbehavioral advertising, the user's identity is often tied to a userprofile (targeting profile) containing information about theirdemographics, interests, and programmatically determined properties(such as look-a-like segmentation). This allows the advertising creativeto be highly targeted to the specific user, providing more relevantoffers and opportunities and as a result improving click through andconversion rates.

Even though cookies enable advanced targeting and advertising to userswhose browsers enable third party cookies, these technologies are unableto leverage browsing history, behavioral and contextual information, andother intelligence relating to a user when it is divided among multipledevices or browsers. Specifically, most modern users of the Internetoften use more than one device to access the Internet over the course ofa single day, such as, for example, a PC at home, a laptop at work, andone or more tablets and/or mobile devices throughout the day, whetheremployer-provided or personal. Because of the standards associated withexisting cookies and browsers, the advantageous user IDs, browsinghistory, demographic data, etc., can only be stored in relation to acookie stored for a particular browser on a particular device. Recenttrends in mobile and tablet technology has meant that users are morefrequently utilizing multiple devices to access the Internet and as aresult see ads across many different devices or screens. Because onlineadvertisers are interested in improved targeting to their intendedaudience, ad networks also have a strong interest in providing targetingto users across their various browsers and devices. Thus, thetraditional method of identifying a user and tying a targeting toprofile to a user's device has significant disadvantages, since theprofile is effectively tied to a device and not to the real target: theuser. Furthermore, many mobile devices do not permit third party cookiesto be stored on the device, rendering the identification of the user viathis method challenging. User targeting has been limited to device leveltargeting, instead of offering a more holistic view of a user's behavioronline.

Accordingly, a need exists for systems and methods for improved onlineuser and device ID management, and delivery of Internet advertising andcontent to devices matched to common users. More specifically, a needexists for systems and methods for matching users across variousInternet-enabled devices, and to online advertising based on users'identities for targeted and behavioral advertising.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

According to certain embodiments, methods are disclosed for associatinga plurality of Internet-enabled devices with a common user profile fortargeting Internet content or advertising. One method includesreceiving, from a plurality of Internet-enabled devices, a plurality ofrequests for electronic content or advertising; extracting, from each ofthe plurality of requests, a source IP address and a unique identifierassociated with the respective Internet-enabled device; for each sourceIP address for which requests were received over a predetermined timeperiod from a number of Internet-enabled devices below a thresholdnumber of devices, identifying each possible pair of devices from whichrequests were received; for each possible pair of devices, calculating aprobability that the pair of devices are owned or operated by a commonuser; and prompting a user to either confirm a characteristic of a priorbrowsing session or to log-in to an account associated with the commonuser based on a comparison of the calculated probability to one or morethresholds

According to certain embodiments, systems are disclosed for associatinga plurality of Internet-enabled devices with a common user profile fortargeting Internet content or advertising. One system includes a datastorage device storing instructions for associating a plurality ofInternet-enabled devices with a common user profile for targetingInternet content or advertising; and a processor configured to executethe instructions to perform a method including: receiving, from aplurality of Internet-enabled devices, a plurality of requests forelectronic content or advertising; extracting, from each of theplurality of requests, a source IP address and a unique identifierassociated with the respective Internet-enabled device; for each sourceIP address for which requests were received over a predetermined timeperiod from a number of Internet-enabled devices below a thresholdnumber of devices, identifying each possible pair of devices from whichrequests were received; for each possible pair of devices, calculating aprobability that the pair of devices are owned or operated by a commonuser; and prompting a user to either confirm a characteristic of a priorbrowsing session or to log-in to an account associated with the commonuser based on a comparison of the calculated probability to one or morethresholds.

According to certain embodiments, a non-tangible computer-readablemedium is disclosed storing instructions that, when executed by aprocessor, cause the processor to perform a method for associating aplurality of Internet-enabled devices with a common user profile fortargeting Internet content or advertising, the method including:receiving, from a plurality of Internet-enabled devices, a plurality ofrequests for electronic content or advertising; extracting, from each ofthe plurality of requests, a source IP address and a unique identifierassociated with the respective Internet-enabled device; for each sourceIP address for which requests were received over a predetermined timeperiod from a number of Internet-enabled devices below a thresholdnumber of devices, identifying each possible pair of devices from whichrequests were received; for each possible pair of devices, calculating aprobability that the pair of devices are owned or operated by a commonuser; and prompting a user to either confirm a characteristic of a priorbrowsing session or to log-in to an account associated with the commonuser based on a comparison of the calculated probability to one or morethresholds.

Additional objects and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will beset forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will beapparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of thedisclosed embodiments. The objects and advantages of the disclosedembodiments will be realized and attained by means of the elements andcombinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of the disclosed embodiments, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate various exemplary embodiments andtogether with the description, serve to explain the principles of thedisclosed embodiments.

FIG. 1A is a series of schematic diagrams depicting exemplaryenvironments in which users may use disclosed devices and methodsaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 1B is a screenshot of an exemplary web page prompt for invitingusers to log-in upon inferring that the user is matched across devices,according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 1C is a screenshot of another exemplary web page prompt forinviting users to confirm prior browsing session characteristics and/orto log-in upon inferring that the user is matched across devices,according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary environment and system formatching users and/or user advertising IDs across devices and browsers,according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an exemplary environment, systems, and dataflow for matching users and/or user advertising IDs across devices andbrowsers, according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an overview method for performing Internetadvertising techniques based on matching users and/or user advertisingIDs across devices and browsers, according to an exemplary embodiment ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of one exemplary method for performing Internetadvertising techniques based on matching users and/or user advertisingIDs across devices and browsers, according to an exemplary embodiment ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of another exemplary method for performingInternet advertising techniques based on matching users and/or useradvertising IDs across devices and browsers, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of another exemplary method for performingInternet advertising techniques based on matching users and/or useradvertising IDs across devices and browsers, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a further exemplary method for performingInternet advertising techniques based on matching users and/or useradvertising IDs across devices and browsers, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for inviting users toconfirm prior browsing session characteristics and/or to log-in uponinferring that the user is matched across device, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 10 is a simplified functional block diagram of a computer and/orserver that may be configured as a device or system for performingInternet advertising techniques based on matching users and/or useradvertising IDs across devices and browsers, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments of thedisclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be usedthroughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

As described above, prior Internet advertising technologies involvedcookies that stored advertising identifiers that are local or specificto a single machine/device or browser. The present disclosure describessystems and methods for linking a user's identity across the user'sdevices to generate and leverage additional opportunities to reach theuser with targeted advertising, and assemble fuller, more accuratebehavioral profile of a user through the observation of larger slices ofthe users online activities. For example, the present disclosuredescribes a platform configured to link together individual uniquetargeting identities to create a holistic profile of a user's activityand behavior across multiple devices, and make that profile available toother systems for the purposes of delivering targeted advertising andcontent, and for the purposes of research and analysis.

Various aspects of the present disclosure are related to pluggablealgorithms that create statistical links between unique devices orbrowsers, for example a user's desktop and their mobile phone, multipleweb browsers on the same device, multiple mobile devices. The resultinglinkage allows content and advertising to be displayed on one device,using information collected about the user on the others. This permits amore complete view of the user to be generated regardless of whichdevice they are using to access the internet.

When a user visits a web page or uses a mobile app, data is collectedvia ad calls and embedded pixel calls. These ad calls and embedded pixelcalls may collect information about the user (including some kind ofidentifier, such as the value of a cookie or a device identifier) andpass it back to a server. Each web page visit, click, or other unit ofactivity may be considered an “event,” and messages generated for theseevents may be streamed into a software application, which consists ofmultiple tiers of filtering, sorting, aggregating, and the applicationof statistical algorithms. In certain embodiments, every step of thedisclosed methods may implement specific logic to an inbound “event,”transforming or enriching the data before passing it onto the next step.At certain steps the events may be aggregated together into increasinglylarge time blocks allowing multiple events to be evaluated at the sametime. Further analysis may be performed on the aggregated resultsthrough the application of deterministic and probabilistic algorithms.The data may stream through the application and the results may bepushed out in real time. In addition, events may be captured andpersisted to storage to permit batch or offline processing and analysisto be conducted. The application supports multiple routes through theavailable processing steps, or algorithms, the exact pathway beingdetermined by the data contained within the event. The processingalgorithms can be dynamically configured and could be described aspluggable, allowing new algorithms to be added to the system andexisting algorithms to be configured dynamically.

More specifically, the present disclosure is directed to linkingtogether or matching all of the devices and/or browsers that belong to aspecific user. The term “devices” as used herein should be construed tocover both actual physical devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, anddesktop or laptop computers, as well as different browser instances thatmay exist on the same physical piece of hardware. Each step in thedisclosed processing algorithms may evaluate the likelihood that twodevices belong to the same user, by looking at properties, such as whatIP address the request originates from, the location of the IP address,the time of day and day of the week the event occurred on, anyauthentication data that is available, any third party identifiers thathave been made available, such as social network user identifiers, thetype of device and browser being used, any information already knownabout the device or user (such as targeting segments), the requestheaders and other information that can be added to the event message byup-stream applications. Once a link is established between two devices,the link may be persisted and made available to other systems, such asad servers and content targeting applications, which can use the linksto understand a user across multiple screens, ensuring the best contentand advertising is targeted to the user.

According to certain embodiments, the present disclosure may involvemonitoring a unique identifier for a device or browser (e.g., obtainedusing a cookie), observing how it appears on different IP addresses overtime, and comparing this to how other unique identifiers appear ondifferent IP addresses over time. The present disclosure may alsoinvolve identifying pairs of identifiers that have a similar pattern(e.g., if they appear on the same non-public IP address a thresholdnumber of times per day, for a certain percentage of the preceding Xdays), and thus establishing a link or relationship between the twodevice/browser identifiers, and also any logical distinction betweendevices. The disclosed techniques may involve weighting the relationshipbetween two devices or browsers by looking at the time of day thesedevices appear on an IP address, giving greater weight to those times ofday when a user is most likely to be on their home network rather thanon a public network or accessing the Internet from work.

The present disclosure may involve further validating this relationshipby looking at pre-existing data known about the devices/browsers andlooking for similarities between the two, allowing the link to beconfirmed or rejected. This pre-existing data can be behavioraltargeting segments, demographic data, or geographic data. In oneembodiment, the disclosed embodiments may include using first partyauthentication data to create concrete links between two devices. Thedisclosed embodiments may further include using authentication datacollected from email service authentication (IMAP) associated with an IPaddress to compare with first party authentication data to create linksbetween multiple devices/browsers.

The disclosed embodiments may further include generating multiple pairsof linked devices and grouping these together to create a completepicture of a user across all the devices they use to access theinternet. The disclosed embodiments may further include grouping userstogether into households, allowing household level targeting. Thedisclosed embodiments may further include grouping larger sets of userstogether by some property, such as public network, to allow targeting oforganizations (such as universities), specific locations (e.g., publicplaces, such as coffee shops, shopping centers, public transportinfrastructure, etc.). Moreover, the disclosed embodiments may furtherinclude undertaking one or more components of the above-describedanalysis in real-time, such as by streaming events through a multi-tierprocessing application, aggregating, sorting, and filtering data toproduce the final result (e.g., event driven architecture) andimmediately making this analyzed data available to external systems.

Moreover, the present disclosure is directed not just to identifyingpairs of devices used by the same user, but also to generating anenhanced level of certainty that the two devices are actually used bythe same user by inviting a user of a suspected pair of user devices toeither log-in to an account of that user, and/or to confirm one or morecharacteristics of a prior browsing session. For example, the contentnetwork might know there was an 80% chance that two devices wereoperated by the same person given the IP address and time-of-dayanalyses described above. If the user agrees to log-in in response tothe identification of the suspected device pair, then the content and/oradvertising network will be able to sell to advertisers the valuable(e.g., 99%+ or 100%) certainty that the two devices are indeed operatedby the same user, thereby allowing targeting of that user based on bothdevice's histories, etc. If the user agrees to confirm one or morebrowsing session characteristics of a prior device, the content and/oradvertising network might not receive certainty that the two devices arelinked by the common user, but it may at least enjoy and leverage thathigher level of confidence that the user is common to both devices. Forexample, the present disclosure describes an example in which thecontent network displays a pop-up to that user saying, “Did you viewthis website from your desktop earlier this afternoon?” or “Did youvisit TechCrunch from this same location yesterday?” If the userresponds affirmatively to such a prompt, the certainty that the user iscommon to both devices might increase from 80% to, say, 90% or 95%.

Turning now to the figures, FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of a seriesof environments in which users may access Internet content andadvertising, according to exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Specifically, FIG. 1A depicts how the same user 100 mayaccess the Internet using any number or type of Internet-enableddevices, such as, for example, a mobile device 102 (e.g., smartphone,PDA, etc.), a work computer 104 (e.g., such as a PC, Windows, Mac, etc.,whether desktop or laptop), a home computer 106 (e.g., a PC or Maclaptop or desktop), an automobile computer 108 (e.g., whether OEM orafter-market), a tablet 110, or any other type of kiosk, computer, ormobile device connected to the Internet through a wired or wirelessconnection. For example, a typical user might wake up in the morning andcheck the weather and his or her e-mail on his or her smartphone 102.The user may then drive to work and access Internet content, such astraffic or news, through his or her automobile computer 108. The usermay then operate a computer 104 upon arriving at his or her workplace,including to access Internet content, whether related to work activitiesand/or personal activities. The user may then return home in the eveningand use one or more of a home computer 106 and a tablet 110. Of course,the preceding scenario is only exemplary in nature, and users' Internethabits may vary widely in terms of which devices they use at givenlocations and times. For example, many users may use a tablet 110 onlyat work or only at home, while other users may use a tablet 110 while athome and at work, and for both personal and professional activities.Likewise, some users may use a mobile device 102 to access both personaland professional Internet content and e-mail throughout the day, evenwhile also using a work computer 104. Also, a user may use a homecomputer 106 at non-traditional times of the day, and may use the homecomputer 106 to perform professional activities, whether during the dayor evening.

FIGS. 1B and 1C are screenshots of exemplary web page prompts forinviting users to log-in and/or confirm browsing sessioncharacteristics, upon inferring that the user is matched across devices,according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.Specifically, as described above, in some cases a user may have beenusing a first device to access the Internet and then may use a seconddevice to access the Internet. The present disclosure is directed todetermining when it is likely that a second access of the Internet isbeing performed by the same person (“individual” or “user”) thataccessed the Internet a first time through a different device. Incertain embodiments, when a server consistent with the presentdisclosure determines that a user is likely matched across devices, theserver may display to the user a prompt that prompts the user to log-into confirm that they are indeed matched across devices, or that promptsthe user to confirm one or more aspects of an earlier browsing sessionto increase the server's confidence that the user is properly matched tothe earlier browsing session.

Thus, as shown in FIG. 1B, in some cases the web page may display theprompt, “Hello, Sorry to interrupt you, but are you Matt P.? If so,would you like to log-in to experience a more personalized and enrichingbrowsing session?” Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 1C, the prompt mightstate, “Hello, Sorry to interrupt you, but did you recently log-in fromthe same IP address using an Apple desktop? If so, would you like tolog-in to experience a more personalized and enriching browsingsession?” Thus, the prompt may either invite the user to log-in, and/orsimply invite the user to confirm one or more aspects of thepredictively matched earlier browsing session. Of course, instead ofshowing a name or nickname as in FIG. 1B, the prompt may show anyalternative identifier, such as a username, an alias, an email address,a unique ID, an IP address, etc. Moreover, the prompt may invite theuser to log-in using any type of credentials, such as the credentialsassociated with the user's content network identity, a commentingplatform identity, a social network identity, an e-mail platformidentity, and so on. Moreover, instead of inviting the user to confirmwhether they previously used a particular type of computer, as in FIG.1C, the prompt may invite the user to confirm any other characteristicof the prior browsing session. For example, the user may be invited toconfirm any one or more of: a time of a prior browsing session, alocation of a prior browsing session, one or more web pages or domainsvisited during a prior browsing session, one or more inputs, clicks, orfield entries made during a prior browsing session, a browser usedduring a prior browsing session, an operating system used in a priorbrowsing session, and so on.

In one embodiment, users may be prompted to merely confirm a priorbrowsing session characteristic if the system reaches a first,relatively lower threshold confidence that the user is properly matchedto a prior browsing session. However, users may be prompted to log-in(and optionally shown a predicted name, nickname, or account name) ifthe system reaches a second, relatively higher threshold confidence thatthe user is properly matched to the prior browsing session. In somecases, the system may “remember” users' responses to the prompts, toavoid asking the same user to log-in or confirm browsing details if theuser recently, or even ever before, declined to do so.

In some embodiments, the system may optionally display a list of peopleor users inferred to be using the same device. For example, if twospouses use the same desktop computer in their home, each time one ofthe spouses begins browsing a website linked with this disclosed system,the spouse may be prompted to select which of the two spouses they are.Thus, the system may, for example, create a first association between afirst spouse's use of the desktop and a first mobile device, and asecond association between a second spouse's use of the same desktop anda second mobile device.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary environment in which users may accessthe Internet using multiple devices, including a plurality of userdevices 102-110. FIG. 2 also illustrates an exemplary system formatching users and/or user advertising IDs across devices and browsers,the system including one or more of: publisher servers 112, advertiserservers 114, and user matching server systems 150, all disposed incommunication with the Internet 101. In one embodiment, publisherservers 112 and advertiser servers 114 may be owned and operated bypublishing and advertising entities, respectively, and not be strictlypart of the same system as user matching server systems 150.

In one embodiment, user devices 102-110 may be owned and used by one ormore people, who may be viewers of web pages over the Internet, eitherthrough a mobile browser or web browser stored on respective userdevices. As described above, user devices 102-110 may include any typeof electronic device configured to send and receive data, such aswebsites and electronic advertisements, over the Internet. For example,each of user devices 102-110 may include a server, personal computer,tablet computer, mobile device, smartphone, and/or personal digitalassistant (“PDA”) disposed in communication with the Internet. Each ofuser devices 102-110 may have a web browser or mobile browser installedfor receiving and displaying web and/or ad content from web servers.Thus, each of user devices 102-110 may be configured to receive anddisplay data that is received from one or more of publisher servers 112,advertiser servers 114, and user matching server systems 150, among anyother web servers, domain name system (“DNS”) servers, contentdistribution network (“CDN”) servers, etc., over the Internet. Asdescribed above, in one embodiment, a user may own and, simultaneouslyor intermittently, use one or more of user devices 102-110, whether ofsimilar or different type.

Publisher web servers 112 may be owned and/or operated by any entitieshaving inventories of available online advertising space. For example,publishers may include online content providers, search engines, e-mailprograms, or any other online site or program having online usertraffic. Publishers may interact with user devices 102-110, advertiserservers 114, and user matching server systems 150, through publisherservers 112 connected to the Internet. Thus, publishers may be able tocommunicate inventory information, such as site information, demographicinformation, cost information, etc., to other entities in theenvironment of FIG. 2.

Advertiser servers 114 may be owned and/or operated by any entitieshaving content, such as online advertisements (e.g., display ads, bannerads, pop-ups, etc.) desired to be delivered to online users. Advertisersmay interact with user devices 102-110, publisher servers 112, and/oruser matching server systems 150, through advertiser servers 114connected to the Internet 101. Thus, advertisers may be able tocommunicate advertising information, such as ad information, targetinginformation, consumer information, budget information, biddinginformation, etc., to other entities in the environment of FIG. 2.

User matching server systems 150 may be configured to interact with oneor more of user devices 102-110, publisher servers 112, and advertiserservers 114 over the Internet 101 to perform any of the presentlydisclosed techniques and methods. In one embodiment, user matchingserver systems 150 may include one or more of: a plurality of ad servers152, user matching processor(s) 154, and database(s) 156. Of course, itshould be appreciated that ad servers 152 may be operated by an operatoronly contractually or even loosely affiliated with an operator of usermatching processor 154. Alternatively, the ad servers 152 and usermatching processor 154 may be operated by the same advertising entity oronline entity.

Ad servers 152 may include any type of servers configured to processadvertising information from advertisers and/or site information frompublishers, and send and receive ad requests and information from userdevices 102-110, either directly or indirectly. In one embodiment, adservers 152 may be owned and operated by an ad network, which may be abusiness that receives ad buys from advertisers, and serves ads oninventory supplied by publishers. Thus, an ad network operating adservers 152 may receive revenue from advertisers, purchase impressionsfrom publishers, and serve ads on publishers' web pages when viewersassociated with user devices 102-110 view those web pages. According toaspects of the present disclosure, ad servers 152 may be configured tointeract with user matching processor 154, such as through one or moreAPIs associated with user matching processor 154, to obtain one or moreof: unique user IDs, cookie data, browsing history, demographic data,user profile data, etc., in response to interaction from user devices102-110.

In certain embodiments, ad servers 152 may be remote web servers thatreceive advertising information from advertisers and serve ads to beplaced by publishers. Ad servers 152 may be configured to serve adsacross various domains of publishers, for example, based on advertisinginformation provided by advertisers. Ad servers 152 may also beconfigured to serve ads based on contextual targeting of web sites,search results, and/or user profile information. In some embodiments, adservers 152 may be configured to serve ads based on ad tags served byadvertiser servers 114 and/or publisher servers 112, and on ad requestsreceived from user devices 102-110. Ad servers 152 may be configured tosend and receive data from user devices 102-110, publisher servers 112,advertiser servers 114, and/or user matching processor 154, over theInternet.

Ad servers 152 and user matching processor 154, either alone or incombination, may include any type or combination of computing systems,such as clustered computing machines and/or servers. In one embodiment,each of ad servers 152 and user matching processor 154 may be anassembly of hardware, including a memory, a central processing unit(“CPU”), and/or a user interface. The memory may include any type of RAMor ROM embodied in a physical storage medium, such as magnetic storageincluding floppy disk, hard disk, or magnetic tape; semiconductorstorage such as solid state disk (SSD) or flash memory; optical discstorage; or magneto-optical disc storage. The CPU may include one ormore processors for processing data according to instructions stored inthe memory. The functions of the processor may be provided by a singlededicated processor or by a plurality of processors. Moreover, theprocessor may include, without limitation, digital signal processor(DSP) hardware, or any other hardware capable of executing software. Theuser interface may include any type or combination of input/outputdevices, such as a display monitor, touchpad, touchscreen, microphone,camera, keyboard, and/or mouse.

Regardless of specific physical components or layout, one or more of adservers 152 and user matching processor 154, or any other servers orsystems associated with ad network involving ad servers 152 and usermatching processor 154, may be programmed with instructions to perform amethod of user matching user advertising IDs across devices andbrowsers, and performing online targeted and behavioral advertisingacross user devices, according to the exemplary disclosed methods, suchas the exemplary methods described with respect to FIGS. 3-6 below.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the flow of information between usersand components of user matching server systems 150 for matching usersand/or user advertising IDs across devices and browsers, and forperforming online targeted and behavioral advertising across userdevices, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.Specifically, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, userdevices 102-110, publisher servers 112, advertiser servers 114, and adservers 152, may exchange data with one or more of user matchingprocessor 154 and databases 156 of user matching server systems 150 (allthrough one or more computers and/or servers connected to the Internet101, as described with respect to FIG. 2).

Specifically, FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary embodiment of user matchingserver system 150, operating a plurality of platforms for receivingonline event data from users, e.g., over the Internet, for matchingusers across devices for performing delivery of targeted content andadvertising. As shown in FIG. 3, in one embodiment, user matching serversystem 150 may include a mobile services platform 302 and an eventformatting platform 304. In one embodiment, mobile services platform 302may receive online event data from users based on the users' interactionwith any of the users' mobile devices, such as mobile devices 102 and/ortablet devices 110. The event formatting platform 304 may receive onlineevent data from users based on the users' interaction with any of theusers' non-mobile devices, such as laptop and/or desktop PCs 104, 106.User matching server system 150 may further include a user matchingplatform 306 disposed in communication with a user targeting platform308. The user matching platform 306 and user targeting platform 308 mayeach be disposed in communication with one or more components of adistributed file system for storing, indexing, and parsing through largequantities of data, such as distributed file system 310. In addition,the user targeting platform 308 may be disposed in communication withone or more ad servers 152, which may be configured to identify andserve advertisements based on targeting rules set by the user targetingplatform 308 for devices matched to users by user matching platform 306.Any or all of the components of FIG. 3 may be incorporated into ordisposed in communication with the ad servers 152, user matchingprocessors 154, and/or database devices 156 described above with respectto user matching server system 150 of FIG. 2. Moreover, any component orsubsystem of the platforms of FIG. 3 may be outsourced and/or contractedout to an entity distinct from or in association with an operator of adservers 152, publishers 112, and/or advertisers 114. The structures,configurations, and operations of mobile services platform 302, eventformatting platform 304, and user matching platform 306 will now bedescribed in greater detail.

As described above, the present disclosure is directed to identifyinglinks between Internet-connected user devices to determine devices thatare likely owned and/or used by a common individual. Accordingly, usermatching server system 150 may be configured to collect informationabout online activity that users 100 engage in, and online events, suchas requests, transmissions, downloads, ad calls, clicks, mouse-overs,purchases, etc. that users make using their various Internet-connecteddevices 102-110. In one embodiment, mobile services platform 302 may beconfigured for receiving and handling advertising requests from nativeapps and web browsers of mobile phone and tablet devices, such as byconstructing a message for each inbound request and forwarding eachconstructed message to a queue for consumption by user matching platform306. When events or requests are generated by a mobile web browser, theuser may have requested a web page via the mobile web browser, whichincludes code that makes a request for an advertisement. The request forthe advertisement may be routed either to the mobile services platform302 (which determines which ad serving platform the request should berouted to) or routed directly to an ad server 152 to process therequest. In either case, the destination ad server 152 may respond bydelivering an advertising creative and logging certain data about therequest. When mobile services platform 302 is involved in the routing,mobile services platform 302 may collect certain data about the request,and present this message to user matching platform 306 via the messagequeue. If the events or requests are generated by a mobile application,then the ad requests may be sent directly to mobile services platform302 in lieu of ad servers 152.

Event formatting platform 304 may be configured to receive data aboutevents from PC (e.g., desktop or laptop) clients, and to construct asuitable message for each event (e.g., ad call, site visit, click,mouse-over, etc.) for forwarding to user matching platform 306. In oneembodiment, event formatting platform 304 may be implemented as a realtime exchange (or “RTX”) integration system that collects pixel trackingevents received from user devices 104, 106, and forwards messages aboutthose PC events to an Active MQ cluster for consumption by the usermatching platform 306. For example, the Active MQ cluster may beconfigured to receive constructed, formatted messages from both themobile services platform 302 and event formatting platform 304, forconsistent delivery to the user matching platform 306. It should beappreciated that a PC-based ad request may originate from a web browseror from any other type of software, such as a client application forexchanging messages and/or multimedia.

User matching platform 306 may be configured to, along with mobileservices platform 302 and event formatting platform 304, performtechniques involving the methods of FIGS. 4 and 5. In one embodiment,user matching platform 306 may implement a Streaming AggregationFramework (“SAF”), which may be a highly-scalable framework for quicklyand efficiently processing large volumes of mobile and non-mobileInternet events in real-time, for identifying matches between devices.This structure may involve streaming messages through a series of tiers,each tier performing one or more of a plurality of desired operations onthe received events before passing on a result message to a subsequenttier. This design structure may allow analysis to be performed in nearreal time. Specifically, according to certain embodiments, the usermatching platform 306 may include a plurality of processing tiersthrough which event messages received from mobile services platform 302and/or event formatting platform 304 are streamed and within whichprocessing is performed. Processing may include filtering, aggregating,sorting, applying statistical or mathematical models, and/or routing ofoutbound result messages to specific destinations.

In one embodiment, user matching platform 306 may identify groups of twoor more devices or browsers that are likely owned or operated by acommon Internet user. For example, user matching platform 306 mayreceive event messages from mobile services platform 302 and/or eventformatting platform 304, and process those messages according to themethods described below with respect to the flow charts of FIGS. 4 and5, and forward the results of those methods to the user targetingplatform 308 for delivering targeted content and/or advertising tousers' devices based on the inferences or insights that a user's two ormore devices belong to that same user (e.g., based on merged userprofiles, merged device profiles, combined segmentation profiles, etc.)User targeting platform 308 may operate as a service that creates,stores, maintains, and makes available user targeting data to ad serversand other components of user matching system 150. Specifically, usertargeting platform 308 may implement one or more of the targetingalgorithms described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,504,411 filed by AOL AdvertisingInc. on Sep. 14, 2009, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/241,856,filed by AOL Advertising Inc. on Sep. 23, 2011, the entireties of whichare hereby incorporated herein by reference.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that depicts an exemplary method performed byuser matching platform 306 for matching users across variousInternet-enabled devices, and by user targeting platform 308 forperforming online advertising based on users' identities for targetedand behavioral advertising. Specifically, FIG. 4 depicts a method 400that includes determining whether two devices appear on the samenon-public IP address over a threshold number of times within apredetermined period of time (e.g., within one day). If the two devicesappear on the same non-public IP address over a threshold number oftimes within a predetermined period of time, then the method may includeidentifying those devices as being matched to a user for thatpredetermined period of time (e.g., that day) (step 402). For example,the present disclosure may involve various assumptions, such as: if twodevices or browsers appear on the IP address of a public network, suchas that of a coffee shop or library, then they are not necessarily verylikely to be owned or operated by the same individual. However, if twodevices or browsers appear on the IP address of a private network, suchas that of a person's home wired/wireless network or mobile hotspot,then they are more likely to be owned or operated by the sameindividual.

As will be described in more detail below, public and private networksmay be distinguished based on the number of devices or browsers that“appear on” that network (i.e., for which requests for websites or adsare received). For example, it might be typical or reasonable for a homenetwork to have up to 8 different devices (e.g., 2 per person in avg.household of 4). But a network from which requests are received from 10different devices might be assumed to be a public network that offerslittle assurance that two devices are more likely owned or operated bythe same person.

Again, if two devices appear on the same non-public IP address over athreshold number of times within a predetermined period of time (e.g.,within one day), then the method may identify those devices as beingmatched to a user for that predetermined period of time (e.g., thatday). Of course, the period of time may be any amount of time, such asan hour, six hours, twelve hours, twenty-four hours, etc. Also, thethreshold number of times may be any number of times, such as five, ten,twenty, fifty, etc.

Method 400 further includes determining whether the two devices areidentified as being matched to a user for a threshold number of timeperiods within the last predetermined number of time periods (e.g.,three of the last five days, or five of the last seven days). If the twodevices are identified as being matched to a user for a threshold numberof time periods within the last predetermined number of time periods(e.g., three of the last five days, or five of the last seven days),then the method may include identifying those devices as being matchedto the user until the match is set to expire (step 404). Morespecifically, if the time period is six hours, then step 404 might linktwo devices as likely associated with a common user if those devices areinitially linked for three of the four preceding six hour periods. Ifthe time period is one day, then step 404 might link two devices aslikely associated with a common user if those devices are initiallylinked for seven of the ten preceding days. Of course the number ofpreceding time periods may be set to any value, and the threshold may beset to any number of the preceding time periods, or any percentage ofthe preceding time periods.

Method 400 may then include performing targeting of content and/oradvertising to a user based on the identification of a pair of theuser's devices as belonging to the same user (step 406). For example,user targeting platform 308 may leverage the matches and linkagesgenerated by and received from user matching platform 306 to advertiseto a user based on an advertising profile common to multiple userdevices or a segmentation profile merged from multiple device profiles,and/or based on which device a user is using to access the Internet. Forexample, if it is determined that a user is using his or her workcomputer, the advertising may incorporate all of the browsing anddemographic data across the user's devices to determine an ad the userwill most likely click on while using his or her work computer. If it isdetermined that a user is using his or her home computer, theadvertising may incorporate all of the browsing and demographic dataacross the user's devices to determine an ad the user will most likelyclick on while using his or her home computer. If it is determined thata user is using his or her mobile device to access the Internet, theadvertising may incorporate all of the browsing and demographic dataacross the user's devices to determine an ad the user will most likelyclick on while using his or her mobile device. Thus, the advertisingsystem may be freed from previous constraints of considering only auser's work browsing history when delivering ads to the user's workcomputer browser, or considering only a user's home browsing historywhen delivering ads to the user's home computer, or considering only auser's mobile browsing history when delivering ads to the user's mobiledevice. To the contrary, the advertising system may advantageously usethe presently disclosed device matching techniques and related systemsand methods to leverage a user's demographic and browsing history acrossall of the user's devices to identify and deliver targeted ads.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram that depicts an exemplary method 500 performedby user matching platform 306 for matching users across variousInternet-enabled devices, and by user targeting platform 308 forperforming online advertising based on users' identities for targetedand behavioral advertising. In one embodiment, method 500 may includereceiving “events” or any type of requests for content and/or ads from aplurality of user devices over the Internet (step 502). Events orrequests received from user devices may originate from a PC (e.g.,laptop or desktop) web browser, a PC application, a mobile web browser,a mobile application, or any other client software that is installed onan end user device and which is capable of making requests via a publicnetwork to a system or service that is hosted on a remote system, suchas a web server. The request from the user may be for any type orcombination of electronic content and/or advertising, whether intextual, graphical, video, and/or audio format. Events may be defined asdistinct interactions between a user and a service which can beconsidered complete and self-contained. In certain embodiments, theseinteractions may take the form of advertising impressions. An impressionmay be any request made by client side code (e.g., a JavaScript tag)that results in a request to an ad serving platform that responds withthe delivery of an advertising creative. In addition to advertisingimpressions, events may include any client side initiated request overHTTP/S to a host side process that is able to capture various propertiesof the request and make them available to the user matching system, suchas, for example, events generated by third party content or advertisingplatforms.

Method 500 may further include extracting from the requests informationincluding: source IP address, unique device ID, and/or cookie data, ifany (step 504). In one embodiment, method 500 may include extracting atime of the event (i.e., the time of an impression, click, purchase,etc.), a source IP address, a unique user ID and/or unique device ID,and a user agent. Extracted information may include any informationtransmitted in the contents of cookies stored on the user's deviceagainst the domain of the request, HTTP headers containing informationabout the user agent and its capabilities (user agent, accept-type,language/locale, etc.), and/or any parameters determined on the clientside and appended to the request URL. The extracted information may alsoinclude any unique identification of the user's browser or device, suchas the value of a cookie, a mobile device identifier, a third partyidentifier added to the request, or an identifier generated by theapplication code responsible for sending the request. In each case, asdescribed in more detail below, a value may be passed as part of therequest that uniquely identifies either the device or the software uponthe device that is originating the request.

Specifically, depending upon the environment within which an event isbeing triggered, one or more unique identifiers may be available and canbe transmitted with the request. In one embodiment, identifiers of userdevices or software may be referred to as universal targetingidentifiers (“UTIDs”). In one embodiment, the unique identifiers used todescribe or identify any particular user device or software (browser orapplication) may depend on the context of the received request (i.e.,the type of software originating the request). In the context ofrequests received from PC-based browsers or mobile browsers, a uniqueidentifier may include an identifier stored in a cookie text file or inbrowser local storage. In the context of requests received from aPC-based application, a unique identifier may include an identifierstored in a cookie (which may or may not be shared with a system defaultbrowser), or a unique identifier generated by the application or a hostof the application, and appended to any HTTP requests for advertising.In the context of requests received from a mobile application,identifiers may be selected based on which mobile platform theapplication is running on. In one embodiment, a unique targetingidentifier may be an Identifier For Advertisers (IFA), an applicationinstall specific identifier or an identifier that has been generated bythe software package used to create the application, such as a targetingidentifier stored in a cookie, an Android ID, a Microsoft ID, or anyother suitable identifier. Alternatively, the identifier may be anIdentifier for Vendors (“IFV”), which is a common identifier that spansacross all apps produced by a specific vendor.

According to certain embodiments, in addition to validating identifiers,method 500 may include formatting captured or logged messages intostructures suitable for user matching platform 306. For example, eachinbound message may be validated to ensure that the necessaryinformation is present and that it is formatted correctly. Othercleaning, filtering operation and data enrichment may be conducted onthe content of the messages to ensure they are suitable to be processedby user matching platform 306.

Method 500 may further include inferring, for each of the requests,additional information, such as device type and local time of request(step 506). In one embodiment, method 500 may include inferring thedevice family (e.g., mobile phone, tablet device, desktop, laptop, orother) from the user agent, and the time zone of the user from thesource IP address. For example, where an event message contains a useragent string, the string may be analyzed using a proprietary databaseand API, such as those provided from ScientiaMobile Inc. known asWireless Universal Resource FiLe (“WURFL”), which allows thedetermination of the device type, the brand, and the operating system ofthe device. These pieces of information may then be added to the eventmessage for use later in the analysis.

Method 500 may further include filtering out requests from public orlikely-public IP addresses (step 508). In one embodiment, publicnetworks and public IP addresses may be filtered out by identifying thenumber of unique browsers appearing on each IP address within apredetermined period of time. If the count exceeds the predeterminedthreshold, then the IP address may be flagged as public, orlikely-public, so that subsequent events occurring at that IP addressfor some period of time may be ignored, on the assumption that theappearance of two devices appearing on a public IP address are notlikely to be matched to the same user. In one embodiment, step 508 mayinclude counting the number of devices that appear against an IP addressover the course of an hour. Once the number reaches a predeterminedthreshold, the IP address may be added to a blacklist that is broadcastto all processing steps of user matching platform 306. In oneembodiment, the threshold may be set as seven or eight devices within aone hour period, and the IP address blacklist may be anywhere from 18-24hours. Of course, any other desired number of devices, time window,and/or expiration window may be used.

In certain embodiments, to reduce the number of events or messages beingsent to subsequent steps for processing, method 500 may includeaggregating all events for a given IP address, UTID, Day Timestamp andWeek Time Block into multiple minute buckets (e.g., five, ten, orfifteen minute periods), so that, for example, two or more clicks withina couple of minutes are not treated as separate events.

Method 500 may further include weighting each request based on the timeof day and/or day of week, with heavier weights going to requestsdetermined to likely originate from a user's home network (step 510).For example, the presently disclosed methods may be performed based onassumptions that requests made while people are statistically morelikely to be at home may be more indicative of requests made betweendevices owned or operated by the same person. For example, if twodevices appear on a network during the middle of the day when mostpeople are at work, then those events may be weighted less. If twodevices appear on a network in the evening when most people are at home,then those events may be weighted more. Various exemplary methods willnow be described for determining the day and time of an event, forpurposes of determining the local time of an event and therefore thelikelihood that a request originated from a user's home network. Todetermine what time zone the user is in, the IP address may be matchedthrough a series of APIs against a proprietary database of IP addressallocations. Once the time zone has been determined, three values may becalculated: (1) the Day Timestamp (DayTS), (2) the Timezone NeutralEvent Timestamp (User Timestamp), and (3) the Week Time Block (WTB). Tocalculate the User Timestamp, method 500 may be configured to (1) obtainthe event timestamp in seconds since epoch in UTC, and (2) subtract thenumber of seconds the user's location is offset from UTC. For example,if an event takes place at 2013:08:26T09:46:21 UTC, and the user isdetermined to be located in Hawaii based on their IP address which is 10hours behind UTC, then the local time may be calculated to be2013:08:25T23:46:21 HAST. Thus, from the user's perspective the eventtook place at 23:46:21 on the 25 Aug. 2013. Method 500 may then includecalculating the day timestamp (“DayTS”) by calculating the start of thatday in seconds since the epoch for the purpose of grouping together allevents for that user for that date.

Method 500 may then include calculating the week time block (“WTB”) andday time block (“DTB”) of an event. In one embodiment, each week may bedivided into fourteen blocks of time, seven of which are times when auser is unlikely to be on their home network, and seven of which aretimes when a user is likely to be on their home network. By dividing aweek into fourteen blocks, the week time block may represent not onlywhether the user is likely home (day vs. morning and evenings), but alsowhether the day is a weekday or weekend. In one embodiment, each day maybe assigned an integer starting from Sunday as “1,” Monday as “2,” andso on, to Saturday as “7,” allowing one day to be weighted higher thananother in the subsequent algorithmic processing.

In one embodiment, the week time block may be calculated as: ((Day ofthe Week−1)×2)+Day Time Block, where the Day Time Block distinguishesbetween one or more of typical work times, typical home times, andtypical sleep times.

Method 500 may further include grouping, over a predetermined timeperiod, all requests received from devices originating from each sourceIP address (step 512). Each message corresponding to each eventaggregated for a particular source IP address may have one or more ofthe following fields: IP Address, Event Time Stamp, Unique TargetingIdentifier (UTID), Day Timestamp (dayTS), Week Time Block (WTB), UserTimestamp, Device Type, Device Brand, and Device Operating System.

In one embodiment, method 500 may include identifying links betweenpairs of devices by aggregating all events together over a period oftime by IP address, weighting the occurrences of events based on theweek time block, summing these occurrences for all occurrences in thatwindow, and generating a score for the pair of devices. Thus, method 500may further include identifying each possible pair of devices for whichrequests were received from a source IP address (step 514). In oneembodiment, all devices (i.e., UTIDs) having events that occur againstthe same IP address in a given Day Timestamp may be pooled together andall the possible pairwise combinations of UTIDs may be computed. Thus,if the IP address for a given household shows devices A, B, C, and D,step 514 may include identifying pairs AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, and CD.

Method 500 may further include calculating, for each possible pair ofdevices, based on the weighting, a confidence level that the pair ofdevices belong to the same user (step 516). In one embodiment, theconfidence level may be calculated based on a mathematical orstatistical model of weightings and likelihoods that a device is beingoperated in the home, and/or that two particular devices are owned oroperated by the same user. In one embodiment, for each pair that hasbeen identified, a weight may be calculated based on the week time blockand the number of times the UTIDs were seen. week time blocks duringwhich a user is likely to be on their home network and not a publicnetwork are given greater weight. In one embodiment, to determine if aweek time block represents a period when a user is more likely to be ona home or private network the modulus of the week time block divided bytwo may be calculated, if the remainder is greater than 0 then the weektime block was an odd number and represents a period when the user wasmore likely to be on a public network. To calculate the weight, thefrequency of occurrence of each UTID on the IP address is multiplied bya weighting factor if the event occurred in a Week Time Block thatrepresents a greater chance of being on a home or private network. Inone exemplary embodiment, the weighting factor may be set to “2” and canbe configured dynamically. In one embodiment, only those pairs that havea weighting score that meets a minimum predetermined threshold are senton to subsequent steps of determining a confidence of the devices beingmatched to a common user. In one embodiment this threshold may be set to3 and may be configured dynamically.

If, at step 518, it is determined that additional pairs of devices existwithin the set of devices aggregated for the source IP address over thepreceding time period, then method 500 may include returning to step 516to further calculate, for the possible pair of devices, based on theweighting, a confidence level that the pair of devices belong to thesame user. If, at step 520, it is determined that a time period haselapsed, then method 500 may include returning to step 512 to update agrouping of requests received from all devices originating from thesource IP address. If, at step 522, it is determined that updatedweights are available, then method 500 may include returning to step 512to update a grouping of requests received from all devices originatingfrom the source IP address based on recent weights last generated atstep 510.

Method 500 may further include identifying a pair of devices asbelonging to the same user if the calculated confidence level exceeds athreshold level (step 524). Specifically, step 524 may include receivinga weight assigned to each possible pair of devices that might be matchedto a common user. For example, step 524 may include, for a particularpair of devices, receiving a message including one or more of thefollowing fields: UTID 1, UTID 2, IP Address, Day Timestamp (dayTS),Weight, UTID 1 Device Type, UTID 1 Device Operating System, UTID 1Device Brand, UTID 2 Device Type, UTID 2 Device Operating System, andUTID 2 Device Brand.

In one embodiment, the confidence level for a particular pair of devicesmay be calculated by aggregating all weights calculated for each eventmessage received for that pair over a preceding period of time, such asover a 24 hour period starting from the first instance the pair isidentified. At the end of the 24 hour window a series of algorithms maybe executed to determine a final confidence score for that 24 hourperiod and an overall confidence score for that link for all time. Inone embodiment, once all link events for a pair of UTIDs across all IPaddresses they occur upon have been aggregated for 24 hours, method 500may perform an evaluation of the weights of each of the events tocalculate a daily (or 24 hour) confidence score. In one embodiment, ifthe matched pair has been identified it is assigned a value of 20;otherwise it has a value of zero. The logic in this algorithm can beextended to provide a more complex analysis of the daily weight scoreswhen determining the daily confidence score.

In one embodiment, a final confidence score may be a value between 0 and100. This value may be used to decide if an identified link issufficiently well established by comparison with a configurablethreshold value. In one embodiment, this value may be set to 60. In oneembodiment, the final confidence score may be calculated by taking intoaccount the confidence score achieved on previous days plus anyso-called “confidence boosters” (described later). The amount thehistoric confidence scores can contribute is configured as a proportionof the overall confidence score. In one embodiment, this value may beset to 80, meaning that historic confidence scores alone are enough topermit a link to be considered confidently established. The total numberof days to include in the historic lookback is a configurable value,which in some cases may be set to four. For each of the days in thehistoric look back a proportion of the total available score may beallocated.

As an example, assuming the existence of two devices (A and B) in apair, if these two devices have been seen consistently over the lastthree days and each has scored enough to be considered suitable for aninitial matching determination, a subsequent step may make a binarydecision that the link exists and allocates it a score of 20 for eachday the link was seen. The scores for the last four days would be 0, 20,20, 20 giving a total score is 60, which meets the threshold andqualifies the relationship as a confident link.

As a second example, if devices A and B were seen together on currentday −2 and today with a high enough score to be passed to tier 4 but oncurrent day −1 the threshold was not met. As a result the daily scoresfor the last 4 days were 0, 20, 0, 20 and the total 40, which would notbe enough to meet the overall threshold to say the relationshipqualifies as a confident link unless there is another boosting factorwhich improves the overall score (see below). This rolling window meansthat as links appear and disappear their score goes up and down, themore consistently a match or link is identified, then the more likely itis that the pair will be determine to be a valid relationship. Forexample, taking the second example, if the linked pair is observed againon a 5th day, looking back 4 days would now yield daily scores of 20, 0,20, 20 with a total of 60, which is a score that is high enough to beconfident about the link according to the exemplary threshold.

Of course, all of the above-described parameters, such as number of daysto look back, the possible score available on each day, the totalavailable scores, and the threshold values, can be configured while thesystem is running, which allows insights to be implemented in real timeinto the system and the overall algorithm performance to be fine-tuned.

Once a link has been established it may be considered valid for aconfigurable period of time (link expiry time). In one embodiment, thismay be set to four days, which means that even if the confidence scoredrops below the threshold value, the link is still considered validuntil the expiry time is reached. The expiry time is reset each day thatthe link exceeds the threshold value, which means that a user can stopcreating events on both devices for a period of time without causing therelationship to be forgotten (e.g., they may have gone on vacation andonly taken one of the devices with them). It also means that if a linkwas established that was invalid it would only take four days for thatrelationship to be broken. Overall these processing steps help to ensurethat the accuracy of the established links is high.

In certain embodiments, a confidence score may be “boosted” based on oneor more additional factors. For example, a booster may be a propertythat can be assessed about the relationship between two devices thatadds weight to the belief that the two devices are linked. A booster canonly add confidence to an already established link.

In one embodiments, some third parties may be able to provide data to usthat can be used to validate if an identified link is real. In oneexample, a third party is able to map together device IDs and householdregistration data using some proprietary mechanism. They make this dataavailable as a feed which is ingested into the user matching platform306. For example, when a link is identified, method 500 may determine ifboth the UTIDs are found within the third party data set and if they arelinked to the same household identifier. If this relationship ispresent, a boosting factor may be applied to the confidence score forthe link. The value for the boosting factor is configurable, and by wayof example may be set to 20. Where a user logs into a system on bothdevices (perhaps an email or messaging service), it may be determinedthat a solid link exists. In one embodiment, boosting factor of 100could be applied ensuring that the link automatically is consideredconfirmed.

In some cases, the user may interact with a third party service whichprovides some kind of identifier for the user. This could be a mobileoperator adding a header to all devices that belong to a particular useraccessing their network, or a user authenticates with a website using asocial networking identifier. If this identifier is found appearing onboth devices in a link, then method 500 may apply a booster reflectingcertainty that this is the same user on both devices. A boosting factorof 100 could be applied to indicate that significant confidence existsabout the link.

When a link has been identified between two devices it is possible tolook at the existing targeting data for each device. If there is astrong correlation between the two targeting profiles this may addweight to the link. A boosting factor of 20 could be applied which maybe enough to push the confidence score for the link above the threshold.

The device type may provide another boosting factor. For example, it hasbeen possible to validate using other available data that when a link isidentified between two tablet devices, a high proportion of the time itis the same user. This means that when a link is identified between twotablet devices it may be desirable to apply a boosting factor that isproportional to a previous assessment of the accuracy of this type oflink.

It may be the case that once a user has purchased a device in aparticular technology eco system (e.g., Android devices, iOS devices)that they are more likely to purchase another device in the sameecosystem when buying a tablet or new mobile phone. It may, with somecombinations of operating system or brand, be appropriate to apply aboosting factor to reflect this.

Likewise, when a link has been established that meets or exceeds theconfidence threshold and that has an expiry date set, a record of thismay be stored in the local system of record. In the situation where aconfidence score is determined multiple times within a single day, thesystem of record may be consulted and the highest score may be used.This could happen where a link is determined via different processingflows or where the same data has been fed to multiple algorithms.

Method 500 may further include performing targeting of content and/oradvertising based on identification of pair of devices as belonging tothe same user (step 526). For example, for purposes of illustration, anindividual's smartphone might have the device ID “UTID: 123” and beassociated with features “x, y, z,” their tablet might have the deviceID “UTID: 456” and be associated with features “a, b, z,” and their PCmight have the device ID “UTID: 789” and be associated with features “i,j, z.” In this case, the individual might have a profile that associatesthe individual with all of the features, “a, b, i, j, x, y, z.”Likewise, the individual might have a profile that aggregates thesegmentation and/or targeting profiles associated with each of theuser's three devices.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method performed by user matching platform306 for matching users across various Internet-enabled devices, and byuser targeting platform 308 for performing online advertising based onusers' identities for targeted and behavioral advertising, according toan exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 6depicts a method 600 for executing techniques between ad servers 152,user matching processor 154, and/or databases 156 of user matchingserver systems 150 to advertise to users based on data collected acrossa plurality of devices they may use.

In one embodiment, method 600 may include receiving, from a publisher, arequest for an advertisement, the request including a unique identifierand/or instance identifier for a user or the user's device (step 602).While an ad request may be received from a publisher, an ad request mayalternatively or additionally be received from the user or from theuser's device. Specifically, an ad server 152 may receive a request todeliver an ad or ad tag to a user upon the user requesting and/orvisiting a web page hosted on a publisher server 112. In one embodiment,the ad request may include the unique ID assigned to the user, theinstance ID assigned to the user's device, and/or cookie data containingone or both of the unique ID and the instance ID. As described abovewith respect to FIG. 3, the unique ID and/or instance ID may have beenmatched or linked by user matching platform 302 with a unique ID and/orinstance ID of one or more other devices of a plurality of the user'sdevices.

Method 600 may further include receiving, based on the unique identifierand/or instance identifier, a demographic or browsing historyinformation generated from the user's use of a first device (step 604).Upon receiving the unique identifier and/or instance identifier, an adserver 152 and/or user matching processor 154 of the user matchingserver 150 may lookup demographic and/or browsing history informationgenerated from the user's use of a first device. For example, the adserver 152 and/or user matching processor 154 may search databases 156for the unique identifier and/or instance identifier to find indexedbrowsing history, demographic data, behavioral information, userprofiling information, purchase history, etc. The stored historical datamay be data generated from the user's first device or any other devicehaving local storage containing the unique identifier and/or instanceidentifier.

Method 600 may further include determining, based on the demographic orbrowsing history information generated from the user's use of the firstdevice, an advertisement to display to the user during the user's use ofa second device (step 606). Specifically, when a user uses a seconddevice to request web content, e.g., from a publisher server 112, theuser's second device may also request an ad from an ad server 152.Because the user's second device may send an ad request containing theuser's unique identifier or instance identifier, the ad servers 152and/or user matching processor 154 may again lookup demographic orbrowsing history information generated from the user's use of a firstdevice. For example, the ad server 152 and/or user matching processor154 may search databases 156 for the unique identifier and/or instanceidentifier to find indexed browsing history, demographic data,behavioral information, user profiling information, purchase history,etc. The stored historical data may be data generated from the user'sfirst device or any other device having a unique identifier or instanceidentifier that is matched by user matching platform 306 with the uniqueidentifier and/or instance identifier. As a result, the ad servers 152and/or user matching processor 154 may be able to serve ads on theuser's device based on one or more of: browsing history, demographicdata, behavioral information, user profiling information, purchasehistory, any or all of which may be based on data collected from morethan one device used by the user.

In general, publishers 112 may host websites having web pages thatdisplay content and advertising. In general, when a user uses a device102-110 to visit a web page hosted on a publisher server 112, thepublisher may send an impression request to an ad network, in this case,an ad server 152. In the impression request, the publisher 112 mayrequest an advertisement to display to the visiting user. The impressionrequest may include any data elements normally included in an impressionrequest, such as information about the web page, the publisher, and/orthe visiting user. The advertising system may select an advertisementfor the publisher to display based on an algorithm that considers thereceived information about the web page, the publisher, and/or thevisiting user. Thus, the Internet advertising system may, consistentwith its ad bidding and exchange techniques and various business rules,award impressions of ads to impression requests from publisher servers112. In other words, the Internet advertising system, through ad servers152, may cause ads received from advertiser servers 114 to be displayedon web pages hosted on publisher servers 112 when users devices 102-110request those web pages. Of course, as discussed above, the display ofthe ads may be precisely targeted both to the identities of the usersand publishers of servers 112, and the content of the publisher's webpage. For example, the Internet advertising system may select fordisplay the ad that is most likely to generate a strong and favorablereaction from the visiting user, based on assumptions, historical data,and statistics gathered about the publisher's site and the user.

A number of use cases are applicable to the above described method ofFIG. 6, as performed by user matching system 150. For example, if a uservisits a website upon which a pixel is embedded, this pixel may add theuser to a population of users. The user then visits a different websiteupon their mobile device upon which an advert is displayed. Because theuser was added to a population upon their desktop computer, the user maybe immediately retargeted with an appropriate advertising for thatpopulation on their mobile device.

As another example, a user might visit a website on their mobile deviceand view an advertisement. The advertisement may advertise a specificproduct that the user is interested in and the user may click on theadvertisement, but not purchase the product at that time. Later, whenthe user is navigating around the Internet on their desktop or laptop,the user may be targeted with an advertisement for the product (orrelated products) that the user originally saw and expressed an interestin on their mobile device.

As another example, a user of a laptop or desktop computer may visitmany websites, and view many online advertisements, and over time aprofile of their interests are generated. The user may also use a mobiledevice (mobile phone or tablet) to access the Internet. The two devices(i.e., the PC and the mobile device) may be linked together (eitherthrough a common profile, or associated unique IDs), thereby allowingcontent and advertising to be targeted to any of these devices (mobile,tablet, and desktop) using the interest profiles generated on the user'sdesktop computer.

As another example, a user of a laptop or desktop computer may usemultiple browsers to access the Internet. Each browser used by the usermay have a separate identity for the purposes of tracking and targetingthe user. As these devices are linked together according to thedisclosed embodiments, it may be possible to target advertising andcontent appropriate for that user across all of the browsers they use.

As another example, a user may view on their mobile device anadvertisement for a product or service that they are interested in.Later, the user may use their desktop computer to purchase the sameproduct or service. Because the two devices are linked togetheraccording to the disclosed embodiments, it may be possible to attributethe purchase to the advertisement they saw on their mobile deviceallowing cross device, or cross screen, attribution, and allowingreporting and insights to be generated.

As another example, a user may view an advertisement for a specificcampaign on their desktop or laptop. The campaign may be frequencycapped to only display to a user once. The user may then navigate aroundthe Internet using their tablet device and encounter pages containingadvertisements. Because the two devices may be linked together accordingto the disclosed embodiments, the advertising network may avoid showingthe campaign to the same user again on their tablet device, so as tohonor the frequency cap for the campaign reached by the user on theirdesktop.

As described above, the user's first device and second device may be anytype of device 102-110 described with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2. Also, itshould be appreciated that any number of devices may be applicablewithin the scope of the description of FIGS. 3-8. In addition, it shouldbe appreciated that, although depicted as different, ad or publisherservers may optionally be the same server; and although depicted as asingle server system, ad or user matching server systems 150 may beseparate and distinct servers accessed by the user's multiple devices,such as devices.

For example, the ad or user matching server(s) may determine, based onthe demographic or browsing history information generated from theuser's use of the first device, an advertisement to display to the userduring the user's use of a second device. Specifically, when a user usesa second device to request web content, e.g., from a publisher server112, the user's second device may also request an ad from an ad server152. Because the user's second device may send an ad request containinga unique ID which is matched by user matching platform 306 with a uniqueID of the first device, the ad servers 152 and/or user matchingprocessor 154 may again lookup demographic or browsing historyinformation generated from the user's use of a first device. Forexample, the ad server 152 and/or user matching processor 154 may searchdatabases 156 for the unique identifier and/or instance identifier tofind indexed browsing history, demographic data, behavioral information,user profiling information, purchase history, etc. As a result, the adservers 152 and/or user matching processor 154 may be able to serve adson the user's device based on one or more of: browsing history,demographic data, behavioral information, user profiling information,purchase history, any or all of which may be based on data collectedfrom more than one device used by the user.

According to certain embodiments, the advertising systems may thenadvertise to a user based on which device a user is using to access theInternet. For example, if it is determined that a user is using his orher work computer, the advertising may incorporate all of the browsingand demographic data across the user's devices to determine an ad theuser will most likely click on while using his or her work computer. Ifit is determined that a user is using his or her home computer, theadvertising may incorporate all of the browsing and demographic dataacross the user's devices to determine an ad the user will most likelyclick on while using his or her home computer. If it is determined thata user is using his or her mobile device to access the Internet, theadvertising may incorporate all of the browsing and demographic dataacross the user's devices to determine an ad the user will most likelyclick on while using his or her mobile device. Thus, the advertisingsystem may be freed from previous constraints of considering only auser's work browsing history when delivering ads to the user's workcomputer browser, or considering only a user's home browsing historywhen delivering ads to the user's home computer, or considering only auser's mobile browsing history when delivering ads to the user's mobiledevice. To the contrary, the advertising system may advantageously usethe presently disclosed unique identifier and related systems andmethods to leverage a user's demographic and browsing history across allof the user's devices to identify and deliver targeted ads.

The presently disclosed systems are configured to allow differentplatforms and algorithms (e.g., various processing steps) to be chainedtogether in different ways. This configuration can be changed atstartup. This allows algorithms to be added and removed. Many parametersused in the algorithm can be configured dynamically while the system isrunning. This makes it possible to fine tweak the performance of thealgorithms without interrupting processing. In addition, multiple routesto be defined within the platform, allowing the same source events to berouted through different algorithm stacks and the output results to becompared. This opens the possibility for enabling machine learning,where the system performs multiple processing streams in parallel, andbased on a measurement of the performance of the different processingroutes to select which result to use in the final confidencedetermination.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram that depicts yet another exemplary method 700performed by user matching platform 306 for matching users acrossvarious Internet-enabled devices, and by user targeting platform 308 forperforming online advertising based on users' identities for targetedand behavioral advertising. In one embodiment, method 700 may includereceiving “events” or requests of any type for content and/or ads from aplurality of user devices over the Internet or other network (step 705).As discussed above, events or requests received from user devices mayoriginate from a PC (e.g., laptop or desktop) web browser, a PCapplication, a mobile web browser, a mobile application, or any otherclient software that is installed on an end user device and which iscapable of making requests via a public network to a system or servicethat is hosted on a remote system, such as a web server.

Method 700 may further include extracting information from each requestincluding: source IP address, unique device ID (or UTID), timestamp,user agent and/or cookie data (step 710). In one embodiment, method 700may include extracting a time of the event (i.e., the time of animpression, click, purchase, etc.), a source IP address, a unique userID and/or unique device ID, and a user agent. Extracted information mayinclude any information transmitted in the contents of cookies stored onthe user's device against the domain of the request, HTTP headerscontaining information about the user agent and its capabilities (useragent, accept-type, language/locale, etc.), and/or any parametersdetermined on the client side and appended to the request URL.

According to certain embodiments, in addition to validating identifiersaccording to methods discussed previously, method 700 may includeformatting captured or logged messages into structures suitable for usermatching platform 306. For example, each inbound message may bevalidated to ensure that the necessary information is present and thatit is formatted correctly. In one embodiment, UTIDs may be validatedwith the following regular expression: [a-zA-Z0-9._-]{14,40}. Messagesthat do not meet the specification described above may be discarded.Other cleaning, filtering operation and data enrichment may be conductedon the content of the messages to ensure they are suitable to beprocessed by user matching platform 306.

Method 700 may further include inferring, for each of the requests,additional information, such as device type and local time of request.In one embodiment, method 700 may include inferring the device family(e.g., mobile phone, tablet device, desktop, laptop, or other) from theuser agent, and the time zone of the user from the source IP address.For example, where an event message contains a user agent string, thestring may be analyzed using a proprietary database and API, such asthose provided from ScientiaMobile Inc., known as Wireless UniversalResource FiLe (“WURFL”), which allows the determination of the devicetype, the brand, and the operating system of the device. These pieces ofinformation may then be added to the event message for use later in theanalysis.

In certain embodiments, in part to reduce the number of events ormessages being sent to subsequent steps for processing, at step 715method 700 may include aggregating all events for a given IP address,UTID, Day Timestamp, and WTB into multiple minute buckets (e.g., five,ten, or fifteen minute periods), so that, for example, two or moreclicks within a couple of minutes are not treated as separate events.

Method 700 may include calculating the week time block (WTB), and daytime block (DTB), as discussed previously. In one embodiment, each weekmay be divided into fourteen blocks of time, seven of which are timeswhen a user is unlikely to be on their home network, and seven of whichare times when a user is likely to be on their work network. By dividinga week into fourteen or any number of blocks, the WTB may represent notonly whether the user is likely home (day vs. morning and evenings), butalso whether the day is a weekday or weekend.

Method 700 may further include grouping, over a predetermined timeperiod or time block, all requests received from devices originatingfrom each source IP address (step 715). For example, the predeterminedtime period may correspond to a week, and requests included in eachgroup would be associated with the same WTB. Each message correspondingto each event aggregated for a particular source IP address may have oneor more of the following fields: IP Address, Event Time Stamp, UTID, DayTimestamp (dayTS), WTB, DTB, User Timestamp, Device Type, Device Brand,and Device Operating System.

In one embodiment, step 720 may include counting the number of timeseach device appears or submits requests using each IP address over apredetermined time period or time block to form a frequency count foreach device. This may include counting the number of times a device isnewly associated with a given IP address, counting a number ofpredetermined units of time each device is associated with a given IPaddress, and/or counting the number of events a given device isassociated with while using a given IP address, etc.

In one embodiment, method 700 may further include identifying eachunique, nonrepeating possible pair of devices for which requests werereceived from each source IP address and time block (step 725). In oneembodiment, all devices (i.e., UTIDs) having events that occur againstthe same IP address in a given, for example, Day Timestamp may be pooledtogether and all the possible pairwise combinations of UTIDs may becomputed. Thus, if the IP address for a given household shows devices A,B, C, and D, step 725 may include identifying possible pairs AB, AC, AD,BC, BD, and CD. The confidence score to be calculated for each pair willindicate whether the pair is likely owned and/or operated by the sameuser.

Method 700 may further include weighing each request based on the timeof day and/or day of week, with potentially differing weights going torequests determined to likely originate from a user's home network andrequests determined to likely originate from a public network (step730). The various methods of determining whether a given request isstatistically likely to originate from a home network or a publicnetwork are discussed above, and may be variously utilized by method700.

If at least one occurrence of a pair of events likely originated from auser's home network, at step 735, the pair frequency may be determined.The frequency counts for each device ID in each pair identified in step725 may be added, multiplied, or otherwise augmented in a predeterminedmanner set by a user and/or administrator to obtain an overall homefrequency count or weight for each pair associated with events from atleast one home network.

Method 700 may further include applying a predetermined home networkweight to each overall home frequency count for each pair associatedwith a home network (step 740). This predetermined weight may be set bya user and/or administrator, and may determine how much weight a homenetwork is accorded when calculating a confidence score that a givenpair of devices are owned and/or operated by the same user. For example,if a home network is to be given no additional weight for a givenpossible pair of devices, the overall home frequency count for the pairmay be multiplied by one.

Method 700 may further include applying a predetermined additionalweight based on the number of additional IP addresses associated witheach pair of devices associated with a home network (step 745). Thisallows a pair of devices to receive an additional weight if the pair wasseen on another IP address and/or network. This may include any form ofarithmetic application of the weight, including simply multiplying theoverall home frequency count for the pair by the number of additional IPaddresses for which events were received over the predetermined timeperiod, for example, over a WTB. Additional IP addresses may be accordeda different weight if they are a public (non-home) IP address. Forexample, if the pair of devices is associated with a home network IPaddress, and the same pair is also associated with a public network IPaddress, a higher weight may be applied than if both IP addresses arehome network IP addresses. After weighing by the number of IP addresseswith which a given pair is associated, overall home network weights fora pair of devices may be obtained. Steps 735-745 may be repeated foreach pair associated with a home network.

If a given possible pair of devices is also associated with eventsreceived from an IP address likely to be a public network (step 747), orif, at step 730, possible pairs are only associated with events receivedfrom IP addresses likely to be on a public network, method 700 mayfurther determine an overall public pair frequency weight (step 750).Public networks may include a user's office, public transport, publicplace, etc., as discussed above.

Method 700 may further include adding together the number of times eachof the device IDs in a given pair was seen on each IP address associatedwith a public network in a predetermined manner to apply a weight for agiven IP address over the predetermined time period (step 750). This mayinclude any form of arithmetic application of the weight, and weightsmay be set by a user and/or administrator in a predetermined manner.Each of these frequencies for each pair may be added together todetermine the overall public pair frequency for each possible pair ofdevices.

At step 755, a predetermined public network weight may be applied toeach pair, for example by augmenting each public frequency count. Thispredetermined weight may be set by a user and/or administrator, and maydetermine how much weight each type of network is given when calculatinga confidence score that a given pair of devices are owned and/oroperated by the same user. For example, if a public network is to begiven substantial weight for a given possible pair of devices, theoverall public pair frequency count for the pair may be multiplied bytwo.

Method 700 may further include applying a predetermined additionalweight based upon the number of IP addresses associated with each pairof devices associated with a public network (step 760). This may includeany form of arithmetic application of the weight, including simplymultiplying the overall public frequency count for a given pair by thenumber of IP addresses associated with the given pair over thepredetermined time period. Additional IP addresses may be accorded adifferent weight based on whether they are a home (or private) IPaddress. For example, if the pair of devices is associated with a publicnetwork IP address, and the same pair is also associated with a homenetwork IP address, a higher weight may be applied than if both IPaddresses are public network IP addresses. After weighting by the numberof additional IP addresses associated with the pair, overall publicnetwork weights for one or more pairs of devices may be obtained. Steps750-760 may be repeated for each pair of devices associated with apublic network.

Method 700 may further include adding the overall public network weightand overall home network weights together for the predetermined timeperiod to calculate a confidence score that each pair of devices areowned and/or operated by the same user (step 765). This process may berepeated by adding the overall public network weight and overall homenetwork weight for each pair of devices to obtain a confidence score foreach pair. This may determine a confidence score for each pair for asecond predetermined time period. For example, the confidence score fora possible pair for a given week time block may be calculated, which maybe considered the day confidence score. The following day, theconfidence score for the past week may be recalculated to obtain thatday's confidence score.

At step 770, multiple confidence scores of a second predetermined timeperiod may be combined together to create an overall confidence scorefor each possible pair of devices. These may be referred to as“confidence boosters,” as discussed above. For example, multiple dayconfidence scores may be combined to create an overall confidence scorefor each pair of devices. This may require normalizing each dayconfidence score to create an indexed score.

Method 700 may further establish one or more possible pairs as ownedand/or operated by the same user if the overall confidence score for anyof the possible pairs is above a predetermined threshold. Thepredetermined threshold may be set by a user and/or administrator.Method 700 may further include identifying a pair of devices asbelonging to the same user if the calculated confidence level exceeds athreshold level (step 775). Specifically, step 775 may include receivinga weight assigned to each possible pair of devices that may be matchedto a common user. For example, step 775 may include, for a particularpair of devices, receiving a message including one or more of thefollowing fields: UTID 1, UTID 2, IP Address, Day Timestamp (dayTS),Weight, UTID 1 Device Type, UTID 1 Device Operating System, UTID 1Device Brand, UTID 2 Device Type, UTID 2 Device Operating System, andUTID 2 Device Brand. Based on one or more of these fields, a pair ofdevices may be established as owned and/or operated by the same user. Inaccordance with other methods presented herein, upon an establishedidentification of one or more pairs of devices as belonging to the sameuser, identical and/or similar targeted content and/or advertising maybe directed to the user on both devices.

The steps of method 700 may be performed in multiple ways. For example,the steps of method 700 may be performed in any order, and each step mayor may not be performed. Method 700 may be performed, for example,without determining whether an IP address is likely associated with ahome or public network. Additional weighting may be applied for eachadditional IP address with which a given pair of devices is identified.Additional weights in method 700 may be applied when a given pair ofdevices is identified as associated with two or more network types suchas, for example, if the pair is identified in both a likely privatenetwork and a likely public network. Weights applied in methodspresented herein may also increase or decrease for each additional IPaddress and/or network type with which a pair of devices is associated,which may provide a “multiplier” effect. In another embodiment,additional weights may be applied in steps 730-760 only for pairs ofdevices that are identified in both a likely home or private network anda likely public or non-home network. Steps 730-760 may be performediteratively for each possible pair of devices that may be owned and/oroperated by the same user. The method 700 may be performed incombination with any of the techniques discussed herein. Further, theconfidence scores for the at least one pair of devices may berecalculated at any time if the weights are updated.

The techniques presented in method 700 dramatically enhance the abilityto identify when a given pair of devices is or is not operated by thesame user. The steps of method 700 allow, among other things, foradditional weights to be added when a given pair of devices isidentified in more than one network or more than one network type. Thisis useful, for example, because a given pair of devices may be regularlyused in a home, workplace, or public network, even though the devicesbelong to separate users (for e.g., separate family members orcoworkers). However, if a given pair of devices is both identified on alikely home network as well as a likely public network, for example, thelikelihood that the devices are operated by the same user may increasesubstantially.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a method performed by user matching platform306 for matching users across various Internet-enabled devices, and byuser targeting platform 308 for performing online advertising based onusers' identities for targeted and behavioral advertising, according toan exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 8depicts a method 800 for executing techniques between ad servers 152,user matching processor 154, and/or databases 156 of user matchingserver systems 150 to associate and/or advertise to users based on datacollected across a plurality of devices they may use.

In one embodiment, method 800 may include receiving, from a plurality ofInternet-enabled devices, a plurality of requests for electronic contentor advertising (step 805). Method 800 may further include extracting,from each of the plurality of requests, a source internet protocol (IP)address and a unique identifier associated with the respectiveInternet-enabled device (step 810). Method 800 may further include, fora first source IP address for which requests were received over apredetermined time period, identifying at least one pair of devices,comprising two Internet-enabled devices, from which requests werereceived (step 815). At step 820, method 800 may further includedetermining whether the pair of devices has been identified for a secondsource IP address over the predetermined time period. At step 825, aprobability may be calculated that the pair of devices are owned oroperated by a common user based at least in part on whether the pair ofdevices have been identified for a second source IP address.

FIG. 9 depicts an exemplary method 900 for inferring matching of usersacross multiple devices and prompting users to either log-in or confirmcharacteristics of a prior browsing session. Method 900 may includereceiving a request for content or advertising from a first device (step905). Method 900 further may include receiving a request for content oradvertising from a second device (step 910). Method 900 further mayinclude determining a likelihood that a user of the first device is theuser of the second device (step 915). For example, method 900 mayinclude determining the likelihood that two instances of online activity(e.g., two different browsing sessions) on two different devices areperformed by the same, common user by any and/or all of the methodsdisclosed with respect to FIGS. 2-8.

Method 900 further may include initiating verification or increasedcertainty that the users of the first and second devices are the same ifthe likelihood meets a predetermined threshold (step 920). Method 900further may include prompting the user of the second device to log-in toan account predicted to belong to the user of the first device (922).Alternatively, or additionally, method 900 further may include promptingthe user of the second device to answer if they satisfy certain criteriaor characteristics inferred from use of the second device (and/or thefirst device) (step 924).

As described above with respect to FIGS. 1B and 1C, the prompt mayeither invite the user to log-in, and/or simply invite the user toconfirm one or more aspects of the predictively matched earlier browsingsession. The prompt may show any type of identifier, such as a name, anickname, a username, an alias, an email address, a unique ID, an IPaddress, etc. Moreover, the prompt may invite the user to log-in usingany type of credentials, such as the credentials associated with theuser's content network identity, a commenting platform identity, asocial network identity, an e-mail platform identity, and so on.Moreover, instead of inviting the user to confirm whether theypreviously used a particular type of computer, as in FIG. 1C, the promptmay invite the user to confirm any other characteristic of the priorbrowsing session. For example, the user may be invited to confirm anyone or more of: a time of a prior browsing session, a location of aprior browsing session, one or more web pages or domains visited duringa prior browsing session, one or more inputs, clicks, or field entriesmade during a prior browsing session, a browser used during a priorbrowsing session, an operating system used in a prior browsing session,and so on.

In one embodiment, users may be prompted to merely confirm a priorbrowsing session characteristic if the system reaches a first,relatively lower threshold confidence that the user is properly matchedto a prior browsing session. However, users may be prompted to log-in(and optionally shown a predicted name, nickname, or account name) ifthe system reaches a second, relatively higher threshold confidence thatthe user is properly matched to the prior browsing session. In somecases, the system may “remember” users' responses to the prompts, toavoid asking the same user to log-in or confirm browsing details if theuser recently, or even ever before, declined to do so.

In some embodiments, the system may optionally display a list of peopleor users inferred to be using the same device. For example, if twospouses use the same desktop computer in their home, each time one ofthe spouses begins browsing a website linked with this disclosed system,the spouse may be prompted to select which of the two spouses they are.Thus, the system may, for example, create a first association between afirst spouse's use of the desktop and a first mobile device, and asecond association between a second spouse's use of the same desktop anda second mobile device.

FIG. 10 provides a functional block diagram illustration of generalpurpose computer hardware platforms. FIG. 10 illustrates a network orhost computer platform 1000, as may typically be used to implement aserver, such as user matching processors 154, or any other serverexecuting user matching platform 306. It is believed that those skilledin the art are familiar with the structure, programming and generaloperation of such computer equipment and as a result the drawings shouldbe self-explanatory.

A platform for a server or the like 1000, for example, may include adata communication interface for packet data communication 1060. Theplatform may also include a central processing unit (CPU) 1020, in theform of one or more processors, for executing program instructions. Theplatform typically includes an internal communication bus 1010, programstorage and data storage for various data files to be processed and/orcommunicated by the platform such as ROM 1030 and RAM 1040, although theserver 1000 often receives programming and data via networkcommunications 1070. The hardware elements, operating systems andprogramming languages of such equipment are conventional in nature, andit is presumed that those skilled in the art are adequately familiartherewith. The server 1000 also may include input and output ports 1050to connect with input and output devices such as keyboards, mice,touchscreens, monitors, displays, etc. Of course, the various serverfunctions may be implemented in a distributed fashion on a number ofsimilar platforms, to distribute the processing load. Alternatively, theservers may be implemented by appropriate programming of one computerhardware platform.

Program aspects of the technology may be thought of as “products” or“articles of manufacture” typically in the form of executable codeand/or associated data that is carried on or embodied in a type ofmachine readable medium. “Storage” type media include any or all of thetangible memory of the computers, processors or the like, or associatedmodules thereof, such as various semiconductor memories, tape drives,disk drives and the like, which may provide non-transitory storage atany time for the software programming. All or portions of the softwaremay at times be communicated through the Internet or various othertelecommunication networks. Such communications, for example, may enableloading of the software from one computer or processor into another, forexample, from a management server or host computer of the mobilecommunication network into the computer platform of a server and/or froma server to the mobile device. Thus, another type of media that may bearthe software elements includes optical, electrical and electromagneticwaves, such as used across physical interfaces between local devices,through wired and optical landline networks and over various air-links.The physical elements that carry such waves, such as wired or wirelesslinks, optical links or the like, also may be considered as mediabearing the software. As used herein, unless restricted tonon-transitory, tangible “storage” media, terms such as computer ormachine “readable medium” refer to any medium that participates inproviding instructions to a processor for execution.

The many features and advantages of the disclosure are apparent from thedetailed specification, and thus, it is intended by the appended claimsto cover all such features and advantages of the disclosure which fallwithin the true spirit and scope of the disclosure. Further, sincenumerous modifications and variations will readily occur to thoseskilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to theexact construction and operation illustrated and described, andaccordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resortedto, falling within the scope of the disclosure.

Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled inthe art from consideration of the specification and practice of theinvention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification andexamples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spiritof the invention being indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for identifying users on a network byassociating a plurality of Internet-enabled devices with a common userprofile, the method comprising: receiving, from a plurality ofInternet-enabled devices, a plurality of requests for electroniccontent; extracting, from each of the plurality of requests, a sourceinternet protocol (IP) address and a unique identifier associated withthe respective Internet-enabled device; for a first source IP addressfor which requests were received over a predetermined time period,identifying at least one pair of devices, comprising twoInternet-enabled devices, from which requests were received; determiningwhether the pair of devices has been identified for a second source IPaddress over the predetermined time period; upon determining that thepair of devices has been identified associated with the first source IPaddress, and that the pair of devices has been identified associatedwith the second source IP address over the predetermined time period,calculating a probability that the pair of devices are owned or operatedby a common user; and upon determining that the probability that thepair of devices are owned or operated by the common user exceeds apredetermined threshold, prompting a user to confirm a characteristic ofa prior browsing session, the characteristic of the prior browsingsession comprising at least one of a time of the prior browsing session,a location of the prior browsing session, one or more web pages ordomains visited during the prior browsing session, one or more userinputs made during the prior browsing session, a browser used during theprior browsing session, and an operating system used during the priorbrowsing session, and/or to log-in to an account associated with thecommon user, an account name associated with the common user beingprovided to the user.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: ifthe calculated probability exceeds a first predetermined threshold,prompting the user to confirm a characteristic of a prior browsingsession; and if the probability exceeds a second predeterminedthreshold, prompting the user to log-in to an account associated withthe common user.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: for eachadditional source IP address with which the pair of devices has alsobeen identified, increasing the probability to determine a secondprobability that the pair of devices are owned or operated by the commonuser.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: normalizing theprobability and the second probability; combining the probability andthe second probability to create an combined probability; andcalculating an overall probability that the pair of devices are owned oroperated by the common user based at least in part on the combinedprobability.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating a probabilitythat the pair of devices are owned or operated by a common usercomprises: determining, for each pair of devices, whether the pair ofdevices initiated a web event at the first source IP address at a timeperiod when users are statistically likely to be at home; and weightingweb events that occur when users are statistically expected to be athome less heavily, when calculating the probability, than web eventsthat occur at time periods when users are statistically likely to beaway from home.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating aprobability that the pair of devices are owned or operated by a commonuser comprises: determining, for each pair of devices, whether the pairof devices initiated a web event at the first source IP address at atime period when users are statistically likely to be at home; andweighting web events that occur when users are statistically expected tobe at home at least as heavily, when calculating the probability, as webevents that occur at time periods when users are statistically likely tobe away from home.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:inferring, based on each of the plurality of requests, a device type andlocal time associated with each request; and further calculating aprobability that the pair of devices are owned or operated by a commonuser based on inferred device type and local time associated with therequest of each device.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:accessing, in a database, demographic or browsing history informationgenerated from the common user's use of a first device of the pair ofdevices, the demographic or browsing history information being stored inthe database in relation to the unique identifier; and identifying,based on the demographic or browsing history information, anadvertisement to display at a second device of the pair of devices,wherein the demographic or browsing history information is synchronizedand associated with the common user's first device and the common user'ssecond device.
 9. A system for identifying users on a network byassociating a plurality of Internet-enabled devices with a common userprofile for targeting Internet content or advertising, the systemincluding: a data storage device storing instructions for identifyingusers on a network by associating a plurality of Internet-enableddevices with a common user profile for targeting Internet content; and aprocessor configured to execute the instructions to perform a methodincluding: receiving, from a plurality of Internet-enabled devices, aplurality of requests for electronic content; extracting, from each ofthe plurality of requests, a source internet protocol (IP) address and aunique identifier associated with the respective Internet-enableddevice; for a first source IP address for which requests were receivedover a predetermined time period, identifying at least one pair ofdevices, comprising two Internet-enabled devices, from which requestswere received; determining whether the pair of devices has beenidentified for a second source IP address over the predetermined timeperiod; upon determining that the pair of devices has been identifiedassociated with the first source IP address, and that the pair ofdevices has been identified associated with the second source IP addressover the predetermined time period, calculating a probability that thepair of devices are owned or operated by a common user; and upondetermining that the probability that the pair of devices are owned oroperated by the common user exceeds a predetermined threshold, promptinga user to confirm a characteristic of a prior browsing session, thecharacteristic of the prior browsing session comprising at least one ofa time of the prior browsing session, a location of the prior browsingsession, one or more web pages or domains visited during the priorbrowsing session, one or more user inputs made during the prior browsingsession, a browser used during the prior browsing session, and anoperating system used during the prior browsing session, and/or tolog-in to an account associated with the common user, an account nameassociated with the common user being provided to the user.
 10. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured for: ifthe calculated probability exceeds a first predetermined threshold,prompting the user to confirm a characteristic of a prior browsingsession; and if the probability exceeds a second predeterminedthreshold, prompting the user to log-in to an account associated withthe common user.
 11. The system of claim 9, further comprising: for eachadditional source IP address with which the pair of devices has alsobeen identified, increasing the probability to determine a secondprobability that the pair of devices are owned or operated by the commonuser.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured for: normalizing the probability and the second probability;combining the probability and the second probability to create ancombined probability; and calculating an overall probability that thepair of devices are owned or operated by the common user based at leastin part on the combined probability.
 13. The system of claim 9, whereincalculating a probability that the pair of devices are owned or operatedby a common user comprises: determining, for each pair of devices,whether the pair of devices initiated a web event at the first source IPaddress at a time period when users are statistically likely to be athome; and weighting web events that occur when users are statisticallyexpected to be at home less heavily, when calculating the probability,than web events that occur at time periods when users are statisticallylikely to be away from home.
 14. The system of claim 9 whereincalculating a probability that the pair of devices are owned or operatedby a common user comprises: determining, for each pair of devices,whether the pair of devices initiated a web event at the first source IPaddress at a time period when users are statistically likely to be athome; and weighting web events that occur when users are statisticallyexpected to be at home at least as heavily, when calculating theprobability, as web events that occur at time periods when users arestatistically likely to be away from home.
 15. The system of claim 9,wherein the processor is further configured for: accessing, in adatabase, demographic or browsing history information generated from thecommon user's use of a first device of the pair of devices, thedemographic or browsing history information being stored in the databasein relation to the unique identifier; and identifying, based on thedemographic or browsing history information, an advertisement to displayat a second device of the pair of devices, wherein the demographic orbrowsing history information is synchronized and associated with thecommon user's first device and the common user's second device.
 16. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, whenexecuted by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method ofidentifying users on a network by associating a plurality ofInternet-enabled devices with a common user profile for targetingInternet content, the method including: receiving, from a plurality ofInternet-enabled devices, a plurality of requests for electroniccontent; extracting, from each of the plurality of requests, a sourceinternet protocol (IP) address and a unique identifier associated withthe respective Internet-enabled device; for a first source IP addressfor which requests were received over a predetermined time period,identifying at least one pair of devices, comprising twoInternet-enabled devices, from which requests were received; determiningwhether the pair of devices has been identified for a second source IPaddress over the predetermined time period; upon determining that thepair of devices has been identified associated with the first source IPaddress, and that the pair of devices has been identified associatedwith the second source IP address over the predetermined time period,calculating a probability that the pair of devices are owned or operatedby a common user; and upon determining that the probability that thepair of devices are owned or operated by the common user exceeds apredetermined threshold, prompting a user to confirm a characteristic ofa prior browsing session, the characteristic of the prior browsingsession comprising at least one of a time of the prior browsing session,a location of the prior browsing session, one or more web pages ordomains visited during the prior browsing session, one or more userinputs made during the prior browsing session, a browser used during theprior browsing session, and an operating system used during the priorbrowsing session, and/or to log-in to an account associated with thecommon user, an account name associated with the common user beingprovided to the user.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 16, the method further including: if the calculated probabilityexceeds a first predetermined threshold, prompting the user to confirm acharacteristic of a prior browsing session; and if the probabilityexceeds a second predetermined threshold, prompting the user to log-into an account associated with the common user.
 18. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising: for eachadditional source IP address with which the pair of devices has alsobeen identified, increasing the probability to determine a secondprobability that the pair of devices are owned or operated by the commonuser.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, themethod further including: normalizing the probability and the secondprobability; combining the probability and the second probability tocreate an combined probability; and calculating an overall probabilitythat the pair of devices are owned or operated by the common user basedat least in part on the combined probability.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the method of calculatinga probability that the pair of devices are owned or operated by a commonuser further includes: determining, for each pair of devices, whetherthe pair of devices initiated a web event at the first source IP addressat a time period when users are statistically likely to be at home; andweighting web events that occur when users are statistically expected tobe at home less heavily, when calculating the probability, than webevents that occur at time periods when users are statistically likely tobe away from home.